Time Off Gives the Rockies a Chance to Meet Their Match

By BEN SHPIGEL

Published: October 20, 2007

The Colorado Rockies played the Colorado Rockies for four innings at Coors Field on Friday and, in a shocking development, the Rockies did not lose.

''Kind of fitting, isn't it?'' outfielder Ryan Spilborghs said. ''For most of us, that would have been the first time in, what, three weeks?''

Exactly three weeks. So what if no score was kept Friday, or if Manager Clint Hurdle patrolled left field, or if Kazuo Matsui struck out and flied out in the same at-bat. The details are inconsequential because the Rockies, yet again, are in uncharted territory.

Having dispatched the Arizona Diamondbacks in four consecutive games to advance to the World Series, the Rockies, winners of 10 in a row and 21 of 22 over all, are enduring an unprecedented eight-day layoff before Game 1 in either Boston or Cleveland on Wednesday. Their intrasquad game, played before 50,000 empty seats, was merely for the hitters to regain their timing and the top two starters, Jeff Francis and Ubaldo Jim?z, to remember what it was like to face live hitting again.

''Although the adrenaline isn't there of a full-fledged game, you're still out there facing hitters,'' Francis said. ''The competition is there, and you want to go out and not get embarrassed.''

The Rockies, wary of how the Detroit Tigers fared after facing a six-day layoff last season, have created a schedule that they say will make sure the momentum does not stall. The Tigers, because of rainy weather in Detroit, were able to hold only one intense full-squad workout outside until the day before the World Series began.

Hurdle gave the Rockies the day off Tuesday, held an hourlong batting practice Wednesday, then gave them Thursday off before holding the first of three intrasquad games. The games will increase in length and intensity before the team leaves for either Boston or Cleveland on Monday.

''I've never done this before,'' Hurdle said. ''I don't have anything to compare it to.''

Rockies General Manager Dan O'Dowd said he spoke Friday morning with his counterpart in Detroit, Dave Dombrowski, about the challenges the Tigers faced.

''He didn't shed light on anything that we didn't know,'' O'Dowd said. ''We're just trying to make the best of the situation.''

That included a contingency plan in case the weather grew temperamental over the weekend. The Rockies entertained the notion of traveling to Tucson, where they hold spring training, but comfortable temperatures and bright sunshine were expected to last until Sunday, when snow showers may accompany temperatures dropping to the low 40s.

If the Rockies had left for Arizona, they would not have been the first team, faced with a seemingly interminable delay before the Series, to have done so. When an earthquake in northern California disrupted play in the 1989 World Series for 11 days, the Oakland Athletics flew to their spring-training base in Phoenix, staying sharp by facing pitchers like Dennis Eckersley, Bob Welch and Dave Stewart in intrasquad games.

''We couldn't have done things any better,'' said Carney Lansford, the hitting coach for the Rockies' Class AAA affiliate, who played third base for that Oakland team. ''You can't expect to go out there and recognize the spin on the balls after not playing for so long. That's why what we're doing now is perfect. Our hitters are seeing spin, they're seeing velocity, and then afterward, they face coaches in the cage so they leave feeling good about themselves.''

There was the slightest hint of rust as Jim?z plunked Willy Taveras and Chris Iannetta, recalling shades of Mickey Haefner, the knuckleballer who hit Ted Williams on the elbow with a pitch in an exhibition game before the 1946 World Series; bothered by the discomfort, Williams batted .200 as the Red Sox lost in seven games to the St. Louis Cardinals. But otherwise, it was life as usual for the Rockies, right down to the outcome.

''It's not quite the season, it's not quite spring training,'' Spilborghs said. ''We have no idea how to describe it.''